With Notre Dame in, SEC foe won't matter

Pete Dougherty, TV/Radio

Published 10:45 pm, Thursday, November 29, 2012

Executives for ESPN, which holds the rights to college football's title game, will cast an imperious look Saturday at the Southeastern Conference's championship matchup between No. 2 Alabama and No. 3 Georgia.

The network already has its holiday gift.

As long as unbeaten and top-ranked Notre Dame is involved, ESPN will have ratings riches.

Even the CBS announcers who are calling the SEC game, which will determine Notre Dame's opponent for the Jan. 7 showdown, recognize that.

"The Notre Dame story is the best thing that could happen to college football," CBS analyst Gary Danielson said. "It's great for our sport. They can compete with whoever they play and can beat — I'm not saying they will — they can play with these teams."

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Whichever team emerges from Saturday's clash in Atlanta (CBS-6, 4 p.m.) likely will be a favorite against Notre Dame. After all, the SEC has won the past six national titles, by four different teams.

Still, the Fighting Irish will deliver the audience.

NBC, which has televised Notre Dame home games since 1991, reports a 67 percent ratings increase over last season. ABC's telecast of the Irish's season finale Saturday night at Southern California received a 9.4 Nielsen rating, highest for any regular-season college football game since 2006.

There's also the factor of what many are calling "SEC fatigue." Fans want to see someone new carrying the trophy.

"I really do understand the feelings from many parts of the country," CBS play-by-play voice Verne Lundquist said. "Let's have some raspberry after all of the vanilla.

"(The SEC) got a break a week ago Saturday night, when Kansas State and Oregon both lost, and there was a resuscitation effort, not only for Alabama, but for Georgia. So one of those two is going back into the championship game again.

"I didn't expect Oregon to lose to Stanford, and I certainly didn't expect Baylor to beat Kansas State. I just thought the chances of an SEC participant again this year in the championship game was absolutely remote."

Danielson said college football would be better served by having a playoff now instead of waiting for the 2014 season.

"What's holding the sport back is this crazy BCS where only two teams play in it," he said. "What you need is the champions from the different conferences having four teams being represented. This year, believe it or, there's no controversy with two teams, but if we were having four teams, there would be tremendous controversy over who would be left out.

"Four's going to be way better, but in my mind, (Big Ten commissioner Jim) Delany had a better idea than the current thing. If you're the champion of your conference and you're in the top six, you're in.

"We're driving our college football into people becoming upset with it, when it can be a tremendous finish, much like college basketball, where the whole country would get involved."